Issuu

2. PROJECT SOLACE

4. CENOTE PAVILION

1. THE ARTERIAL CONSTRUCT

THE ARTERIAL CONSTRUCT

Glenwood Ave I-94 Underpass: Minneapolis, MN

The Interstate Highway Act of 1956 was proposed with the intent of country-wide connection through a system of devised highways linking our metropolitan cities. What became a new arterial system for the country brought with it decades of suffering for minority families in each city the proposed plan touched, leaving over 1,000,000 people displaced from the communities they once thrived in. The Highway Act not only divided communities on a racial and income level, but its nationwide mark has left our cities with embolic territories in the form of underpasses. These neglected spaces have been left to serve little purpose. Many serve as underutilized parking lots, feeding into car-centricity in our cities. The 12-lane I-94 construction separated the communities of Glenwood and North Minneapolis from the rest of the downtown areas of Minneapolis. The Glenwood Avenue underpass spans nearly 1000 feet north to south and 250 feet east to west. The spaceis currently used as a parking lot twice weekly during the summer months for the Minneapolis Famers Market on the east side of the Underpass. The goal: Provide a public space, a sister Museum to the Walker Art Center, and pavilions harboring the communities’s history to reconnect the Glenwood and North neighborhoods to the rest of Minneapolis.

DOWNTOWN MINNEAPOLIS

System of Embolic Space surrounding Minneapolis

Isovist view context of site

Planter Wall: Lyndale Ave N

Sound Barrier: Lyndale Ave S

The Nexus: Museum of Cultural Art

PROJECT SOLACE

Hamline-Midway Neighborhood: St. Paul, MN

The neighborhood of Hamline- Midway located in the middle of Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN has faced nearly 80 years of cultural loss. The construction of the East-West running highway I-94 split the community formerly known as “Rondo” resulting in major family displacement, loss of culture, and mass movements of gentrification in the areas. The proposal: A site of an abandoned gas station resting on the intersection of Hamline Ave and University Ave, a major route for people commuting between Minneapolis and St. Paul. Design a community center pairing as a business incubator for local businesses and the surrounding community to take back a piece of their lost culture

The surroundings of the Midway site show that parks and public spaces are not the most accessible attributes of this area especially on University Ave. Being a major car trafficked cooridor the lack of public space on University Ave is something we wanted to change. Designing a space that would embrace the surrounding community and pull people off the street and into a place of comfort and play was the main goal.

Neighborhood

REWILDING AVIVO

1900 Chicago Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55404

As the rise of mental health awareness increases, the world of architecture is also taking measures to coalesce. Avivo is a non-profit mental health and rehabilitation organization taking steps to bring nature back into urbanized areas. The site of the Avivo headquarters poses an immense opportunity to in their own words “heal through nature”. We wanted to take proactive steps to reintroduce natural habitats and wildlife to a site that does such good for its patients.

The main focus of this project was to reintroduce native bird species of Minnesota that have experienced a decay of natural habitat due to growing urbanization in major metropolitan cities. Taking steps towards bird-safe design as it is located on the major migratory Mississippi Flyway, a tower for tree nesting birds, and reintroducing natural plantings and foliage that were once filling the site will aid in the process of helping all native bird species feel at home again.

COLUMBUS

CHICAGO AVE

COLUMBUS AVE

Nesting Tower

CENOTE PAVILION

Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza: Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

This particular project was set with the goal to explore native architectural roots within the country of Mexico. We moved from material studies and exploration into a constructive intervention. The chosen site was Chichen Itza. The intervention: to provide a respit located at Chichen Itza’s ‘sacred cenote’ a quarter mile north from the temple El Castillo and construct a shelter from the sun and natural elements of the harsh climate of the Yucatan region.